Beyond the Border: The deadliest year in ICE custody,increased enforcement across California and wrongful-death lawsuits
Here's what happened this week in immigration news.
Written by Emma Chen, Edited by Kate Morrissey
This fall, a Daylight San Diego intern named Emma Chen will be writing these news roundups. (I will be editing them.) You can support that work by donating to Daylight.
ICE-related deaths
CBS News reported that Julian Curo-Churata became the 37th person to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody during fiscal year 2026, the agency’s deadliest fiscal year on record.
The fatal shooting of a 52-year-old Houston father by an immigration officer has become a political rallying point for some Latino residents and activists in Texas ahead of the midterm elections, NBC News reported.
A former housemate of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, described struggling with grief and trying to rebuild his life after witnessing the aftermath of his friend’s killing, WBUR reported.
Latin Times reported that Mexican nationals accounted for 31% of immigrant deaths in ICE custody or during immigration-enforcement operations since President Donald Trump returned to office. Mexico has increased diplomatic and legal pressure over the deaths.
Renée Good’s partner and brother filed two lawsuits against the federal government, the ICE officer who killed her and several current and former Trump administration officials, alleging wrongful death and civil rights violations, Politico reported.
A Department of Homeland Security review found that inadequate and delayed medical care contributed to the January death of a 42-year-old Honduran immigrant at the Joe Corley Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Enforcement in California
L.A. TACO reported that at least 45 people were detained across Southern California amid what appeared to be a new immigration enforcement surge, as ICE simultaneously moves to hire 5,000 officers and federal officials seek military lawyers to assist with enforcement-related prosecutions in Los Angeles and other cities.
Federal immigration officers detained about two dozen people in the Fresno area during an enforcement surge that DHS said was part of a nationwide operation focused on sanctuary jurisdictions, The Fresno Bee reported.
Federal immigration officers arrested at least 17 people across northern Santa Barbara county on Oct. 5, including the parent of an Allan Hancock College student in a campus parking lot, prompting criticism from local elected and college officials, The Santa Barbara Independent reported.
Other immigration arrests
The Bulwark reported that immigration arrests and changes in legal protections have disrupted families and businesses in Doral, Florida, a heavily Venezuelan community that swung strongly toward Trump in the 2024 election.
ProPublica identified more than 500 U.S. citizens detained by immigration officers since the start of the current Trump administration, including more than 100 held after agents questioned their citizenship and at least 70 children and teenagers.
The New York Times reviewed Mahmoud Khalil’s memoir “No Land to Stand On,” which recounts the Palestinian Columbia graduate’s 104 days in immigration detention, separation from his pregnant wife and continued fight against deportation following his pro-Palestinian campus advocacy.
ICE officers detained a Venezuelan veterinarian with ties to Jacksonville at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in September, prompting former colleagues and community members to raise nearly $20,000 for her legal expenses, News4JAX reported.
Third country removals
Truthout reported that at least 40 LGBTQ+ immigrants who had received legal protection in the United States were deported to third countries that criminalize same-sex relations or that the State Department considers dangerous for LGBTQ+ people.
Immigrants deported from the United States to El Salvador have subsequently been held in Salvadoran prisons, making it difficult for families and attorneys to track what happens to deportees after transfer, The Atlantic reported.
Detention conditions
An independent monitor found that overall cleanliness had improved at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center after a federal judge ordered inspections, although mold, larvae and other sanitation concerns remained in and around some shower areas, the San Bernardino Sun reported.
The San Berdinano Sun reported that suicidal immigrants held in ICE custody have routinely been placed in solitary confinement, including detainees with documented histories of suicide attempts and mental health conditions.
The Miami Herald reported that experts said small outdoor punishment cages used at Florida’s former “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention site, where former detainees said people were sometimes restrained for hours, likely violated detention standards and potentially international standards for humane treatment
At least 73 immigrants detained at Georgia’s Folkston ICE Processing Center launched a hunger strike over prolonged detention and alleged poor conditions, including inadequate medical care and moldy food, The Guardian reported.
Current and former detainees at Colorado’s GEO Group-run Aurora ICE Processing Center described rotten food, inadequate cooling, illness, fights, pepper spray and difficulties obtaining medical care as the facility’s population increased, The Denver Post reported.
Migrant Insider reported that a Government Accountability Office review found ICE launched six new detention initiatives after January 2025 without an overall implementation plan, while federal funds originally appropriated for shelter services were redirected to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention program.
The Department of Homeland Security bought three GEO Group immigration detention facilities in Adelanto, California, for $950 million, while GEO will continue operating the sites under its existing ICE contract, Project Salt Box reported.
L.A. TACO published a resource guide after ICE stopped displaying people with final deportation orders in its detainee locator, making it more difficult for some families and attorneys to determine where their loved ones or clients are being held.
Several immigrants detained at the El Valle Detention Facility in South Texas began a hunger strike Sept. 29 to protest prolonged detention and called to be transferred outside the jurisdiction of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, The Marshall Project reported.
Immigrants in Mexico
The Border Chronicle reported that participants in a public high school evening program in Tapachula, Mexico, are mostly immigrants. The program is helping students from Haiti and other countries navigate enrollment barriers, learn Spanish and continue their education as more migrant families remain in southern Mexico.
Palestinians who fled the war in Gaza and are rebuilding their lives in Mexico, including through cooking and sharing Palestinian food in their new communities, The Washington Post reported.
Targeting activists
The Intercept reported that federal prosecutors denied a defense ballistics expert access to evidence in the case against activist Benjamin Song, who was convicted of attempted murder after a 2025 protest outside Texas’ Prairieland ICE detention center, before evidence disclosed at trial raised questions about whether the bullet that struck an officer had ricocheted.
Border Patrol agents arrested at least 20 activists who had spent months occupying a cottonwood tree in southern Arizona to delay border wall construction before federal crews cut down the tree, LOOKOUT reported.
Several immigrants detained at the El Valle Detention Facility in South Texas began a hunger strike Sept. 29 to protest prolonged detention and are calling to be transferred outside the jurisdiction of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, The Marshall Project reported.
A former senior FBI intelligence analyst said that Trump directed the FBI to investigate Los Angeles protesters opposing immigration enforcement, leading the bureau to form a 10-agent immigration squad despite internal concerns about the directive, The Guardian reported.
Pushing back
Contra-ICE, an immigrant-rights advocacy collective of musicians and artists, released a 47-track benefit compilation featuring artists including Tom Morello, Fred Armisen and Ozomatli, with proceeds supporting the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Unión del Barrio.
Madera residents protested recent immigration enforcement operations in the Central Valley amid reports of increased federal activity in Fresno and Madera counties, ABC30 reported.
Other stories to watch
The San Diego Community College District began installing signs across its campuses stating that district property cannot be used for immigration-enforcement staging or related operations, weeks after federal officers pursued a person onto San Diego City College property, FOX 5 San Diego reported.
The Guardian reported that a nurse filed a federal claim after video showed an ICE officer throwing her to the ground outside New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center while she was providing medical assistance near a protest.
A pro-Trump influencer is facing a defamation lawsuit from protesters who say he falsely identified them as “left-wing terrorists” who assaulted federal officers outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, NPR reported.
Authorities arrested a Florida man accused of wearing ICE-branded clothing and intimidating Brazilian citizens as they voted in their country’s presidential election at a Miami-Dade College polling location, CBS Miami reported.
The Bulwark reported that conservative media company The Daily Wire is filming “Pawn Shop,” a pro-ICE action movie in Montana that fictionalizes immigration raids and protests surrounding the fatal shooting of Renée Good. The film has drawn protests from some local residents.
ICE is seeking to sell seven warehouses that the federal government spent more than $700 million purchasing for a planned expansion of immigration detention, Project Salt Box reported.
Politico reported that the DHS proposed requiring colleges to pay $70,000 when recommending an international student for initial optional practical training and $30,000 for subsequent participation, including STEM extensions.
Emergency room visits by people born outside the United States dropped at three Los Angeles hospitals after immigration enforcement increased, while hospital admissions among the same population rose, STAT News reported.
Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.
— Emma
